


Best Laid Plans

by impish_nature



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Birthday Fic!, Gen, planning a party!, pure fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-22
Updated: 2016-11-22
Packaged: 2018-09-01 13:36:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8626501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/impish_nature/pseuds/impish_nature
Summary: The twins find out when Stan and Ford’s birthday is. Now all they have to do is plan the Best Birthday Ever.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Last Fluffstravaganza fic! All three slots done and dusted and a lot of fun. ^^ I hope you guys enjoy them as much as I did writing them ♥ All the fluff!
> 
> @masked-fox-creations request for a birthday fic. (As cavity inducing/sweet as possible)

“Dipper?”

“Yeah?”

Mabel waited until she had her brother’s full attention, his head still stuck in one of his _nerd_ books as she liked to call them.

Luckily enough her tone was enough to get him to glance up instead of her having to throw something at him.

“What are we doing for the Grunkles’ birthday?”

Dipper shrugged, book completely forgotten as he dropped it to his lap. “I dunno. We talked about this. We’ve got to think of an amazing present for them, right?”

“But that’s not enough!” Mabel jumped up, beginning to pace their small room. “I mean! This is the first birthday they’re going to have together in _forty years_! And I bet they haven’t exactly celebrated all that much in that time.”

Dipper nodded, watching her pace. It was an odd turn of events watching her, instead of her watching him, make a hole in the floor. “Yeah, I know. I want to make it special too. What were you thinking? Asking Mum and Dad if they can come here?”

“No, that’s not a surprise then! And the others won’t be here to celebrate too!” Mabel’s eyes sparkled as she spun around to him, hands on hips. “I think we should go to them!”

“…Mabel, we have school.”

“We’ll figure it out.”

“…How are we going to get there _and_ have somewhere to stay without them knowing? And aren’t they getting ready to leave?”

“One, we get there the same we got there before. Two, Soos. I don’t need to say anything else. And three- they’re not leaving until a week after! I already checked.” Mabel shrugged, pulling up the calendar. “Maybe they wanted to spend their birthday in Gravity Falls?”

Dipper let all the information sink in, grinning as it clicked away and he realised this was happening. “Does this mean I get to write up a detailed plan and you won’t tell me off for it?”

“That is exactly what I’m saying. Gonna need that noggin of yours to pull this one off Dip-Dop. I can’t do it without you!”

* * *

“I can’t believe it.”

Dipper couldn’t even speak as Mabel started to gesture wildly between them all. They’d gotten to Gravity Falls without a hitch. They’d gotten Soos and Wendy involved, they’d managed to not tell the Stan’s a word of their plan or get caught sneaking around the shack. They’d even managed to sneak around town getting any information they could that would help them.

They’d stayed low until the Stan’s left for the day as Soos said they always did, kept quiet until they’d left knowing they had a full morning and afternoon to get the shack completely ready for the party that would start once they came home.

Or that’s what they had planned anyway.

And yet at 2pm, just when the decorations were finally up there had been the sudden arrival of two very unwanted visitors.

Ones that had been very pleased and amused at the sight of them, not quite realising what they had walked in on.

“…It appears we have some stowaways.”

“ _No_! You’re not meant to be back for two more hours!” Mabel whined, her face distraught, wiping the gleeful expressions off her Grunkles’ faces. The plan had been successful to an extent, both Grunkles ready to run forward and wrap up their unexpected visitors in a big hug. But now with Mabel’s obvious distress they both glanced at each other in concern.

“Mabel? It’s great to see you- and Dipper- but…what is all this?” Ford gestured at the decorations that Soos had been putting up for them, nudging one of the banners with his hand as he did so. The room had been transformed, all the exhibitions moved to the sides and two long tables set up bowing with the amount of food atop them.

“It’s…it was meant to be a surprise birthday party.” Dipper muttered, glancing at his feet, arms going behind his back.

“You weren’t meant to be back for a while longer.” Mabel shuffled forwards, arms raised up for a hug. She was still happy to see them, even if things had gone awry. Stan picked her up quickly, not liking the sad look on her face, besides he’d been itching to since he’d seen her.

“Yeah well…we’re all set to go now. We’ve been planning for so long, we wanted to make sure we were ready in advance. Now we can relax for a few days without worrying instead of doing everything last minute.” Stan patted her back, giving Dipper an apologetic smile.

“Yes we…we were planning just to run through everything a few more times to make sure we were set- I’m sorry, wait a second.” Ford rubbed at his eyes, glancing around at everything before turning to Stan. “Is it… is it really?”

“Guess so. Glad I’m not the only one that forgot, I was worried for a second.” Stan felt Mabel freeze in his arms, eyes shooting to her as she looked up at him dejectedly.

“You forgot?” She whispered quietly. “We wanted to make this birthday the best one ever.”

“Hey, you did just that.” Ford hushed her, voice soft and reassuring, arms open to her so that he could have a hug too and gesturing Dipper forward as he crouched down.

“Yeah, I mean. I get to spend the day with my bro again. There wasn’t really much cause for celebration the other years.” Stan patted her on the head with a smile as he let her go, eyes flickering to Ford for a moment.

“Yes! Exactly! I didn’t really celebrate on the other side of the portal… all it did was remind me how long I’d been-” Ford coughed, Stan’s face filling with guilt that he hadn’t meant to throw at him. “But this year I’m home! Because of you guys, Bill’s never going to hurt us again and-” He smiled at Stan over their heads as Dipper finally bundled into the hug. “It sure wouldn’t have been the same if you hadn’t gotten Stan’s memories back.”

Stan laughed, hugging the three of them from behind the twins. “Yeah, I mean…not much of a birthday if one of the twins can’t remember, is it?”

“You both forgot.” Dipper pointed out, making the older twins snort.

“True, but that’s just us being us not memory gun related. At least I don’t think so.” Stan tapped at his head, getting a shove from his brother.

“Let’s not joke about that.”

Mabel huffed, less distraught now but still sulking as she played with Ford’s coat. “You gotta go back out so we can finish planning now.”

“Oh really?” Stan’s face grew mischievous. “‘Cause I reckon there’s cake over there and I’m not budging til I get a slice.”

Dipper pulled back from the hug, or as much as he could to look up at Stan with a frown. “You can’t have cake until the party!”

“But it’s _my_ birthday.”

“…He’s got you there, Dipper.”

Ford chuckled, standing up and putting Mabel down in one movement. “On that note- that table really doesn’t look like it can hold up.”

“I did say that, you two.” Wendy piped up from the background, getting herself an endearing and bemused wave from the older men.

Stan stepped over the twins, counting it as a success when Mabel grabbed hold of his leg.

“No! It’s not finished yet.”

“But cake, Mabel!” Stan whined, fully enjoying the small scolding giggle from below. “Can’t I at least know what I’m missing out on for later?”

“Well…” Mabel glanced over at Dipper, waiting for his shrug of a verdict before giving a long suffering sigh at her Grunkle’s antics. “Alright! But then you go off for another hour or so, OK?”

“I make no promises.”

“I’ll try to drag him away if necessary, sweetie.” Ford interjected as Mabel crossed her arms and glared at Stan.

“Good.” Mabel continued to watch Stan, tugging him back towards Ford and away from the table of food. “So, we didn’t know what cake was your favourite so we decided to make as many cakes as we could. And Dipper and Wendy went out shopping for snacks they remembered you eating at our party, and-”

“Whoa, ok, wait.” Ford held up his hands as he stared down wide eyed at the pair of them. “How many cakes did you make?”

“Ten.”

The chorus made him blink, hands counting along with his head. “How on earth…how long have you two been here? And why didn’t we smell anything?”

“Abulita let us use her oven too, so some were cooked over there. And I mean we got the bus straight after school yesterday and stayed up to do what we could- we were after all planning the _perfect_ birthday. That takes time and effort!” Mabel shooed him off with a yawn as if it was the obvious and not at all concerning answer. “OK, now you know. Seriously, you two have to go! We haven’t even called the guests yet to tell them what time to come round.”

“How about we keep it that way?”

“But our plans-” Dipper pulled out the giant list that they were still only halfway through, jumping as Stan plucked it out of his grasp and threw it over his shoulder.

“Ford, our family has come to surprise us and they think we’re going to share them with everyone else on our birthday!” Stan shook his head, his entire body language theatrically upset as he regarded the two small kids.

Ford nodded, face sombre, trying not to mention the fact that he really wanted to make sure the kids got some sleep after putting so much effort into this. “We see the townspeople whenever we want, not you two.”

“Are you sure you don’t want a party?” Dipper and Mabel looked at each other, as if the notion baffled them.

“I’m more interested in presents!”

“Stan!” Ford snapped then, nudging him with his elbow as his eyebrows furrowed. The kids had gone to so much effort, to ask them to have gotten them presents as well-

“We were going to give you them during the party.” Dipper hummed thoughtfully, turning to Mabel. “Well, I think it’s time to disregard the plan.”

“But-”

“Mabel, you always make me throw out the plan before the end of it.”

Mabel gave another weary sigh before her expression flipped straight back to its usual vibrant beam. “Fine…Cake and presents it is!”

“Wait, really? Cake and presents?” Stan’s smile turned suddenly softer, not noticing everyone turn to him. “I haven’t got a present in years.”

“Only because you wouldn’t tell me when your birthday was.”

“Can it, Soos!” Stan pouted as the others laughed, a bubble of laughter spreading through all of them before the kids vanished, their feet pattering excitedly across the floor.

They waited happily for a few moments before Stan broke the silence.

“So…wanna take bets on how long it’ll take them to crash tonight?”

Ford snorted, shaking with the sudden unexpected glee. He grabbed Stan’s shoulder to keep himself up straight, not quite able to talk through his merriment. He wasn’t quite sure why he found it all so funny all of a sudden, but he wasn’t going to complain. “S-sure. Though I… heh, I think Mabel has enough sugar on that table to keep us all up all week.”

Before Stan could answer, the pair were back in front of them, presents held out up to them as high as they could go.

“Kids, you really didn’t have to-”

“Of course we did! Especially if you two forgot to get each other presents, now come on!” Mabel pulled them down to sit on the floor, sitting cross-legged in front of Ford as she dropped the box into his lap. “No trying to feel what it is.”

“I wouldn’t- oh.” Ford smirked as his brother shook his box with a look of mild concentration on his face.

“Yeah, I wasn’t saying it to you.”

“I can see that.”

Stan huffed, a playful pout on his face. “No fair, you guys tricked me. I can’t figure it out.”

“We learnt from the best- now open it already!” Mabel vibrated where she sat, watching Ford excitedly.

Ford couldn’t help the bead of excitement that buzzed through him too at the notion. He carefully opened his present, letting its solid weight spur on his curiosity. He noticed out of his peripheral that Stan had ripped into his with gusto. Not that it mattered, both presents were hidden inside another layer of boxing, the kids grinning cheekily.

“What? We really didn’t want you guessing.” Dipper smirked.

Ford hummed, glancing down as he flipped open the box. His smile fell into an ‘o’ of surprise.

Inside was a new journal, a deep sea green with a golden boat adorning the front cover.

“Dipper thought you might want a new one.”

“A-a fresh start.” Dipper stuttered out, his face betraying that he wasn’t sure if it was a good idea.

Ford smiled, running his hand across it. “It’s perfect, now I’ll have a way to tell you about our adventures whenever you call.”

“Nice.” Stan nodded his approval at the kids present, his own unwrapping paused as he glanced over Ford’s shoulder. He turned his attention back to it then, flipping up the lid without preamble to find a vibrant red beanie. He pulled it out, noting the same golden design knitted into it.

“We thought- as you gave your fez to Soos, you might be looking for a new hat. Plus Mabel can knit and you’re gonna need warm clothes when you’re out at sea.” Dipper shuffled about, as Stan continued to stare down at it.

“Plus they match!” Mabel pointed at their presents, her face bright and cheery at the two of them.

Stan grinned, tugging the hat on without preamble. “How do I look?”

“Like a sailor!”

“Good enough for me.” He belted out a laugh before tugging them both in for another hug, feeling Ford’s arm around his shoulder at the same time. He found himself leaning into the touch. He’d never admit it, but getting matching gifts really cemented the fact that Ford was home, that they were really doing this.

They were really going on the adventure they’d always promised they would.

He sniffed, trying to shake away the sappy thought.

“Now, come on you lot. I think it’s time we all lounged and stuffed ourselves full of cake- that includes you two hiding over there! Come on, Soos, Wendy- get yourselves over here.”

* * *

“So… even without the party… did we do good?” Mabel tilted her head upwards as Ford and Dipper snored beside them on the sofa, her face hopeful.

Stan looked down at her, humming thoughtfully before glancing at the others, feeling his heart warm at the sight of his brother so peaceful. He leaned in close, holding her tight.

“Best. Birthday. _Ever_.”

**Author's Note:**

> AN: Did I rot any teeth? ♥  
> I forgot for a while what I’d wanted to do for Stan and then got excited all over again thinking about the kids giving him his beanie ♥


End file.
